Schools and Small Businesses

There were two meetings I went to this week – each followed a similar approach.

On Tuesday evening Teachmeet Stoke (#tmx on Twitter) was organised by 3 teachers and held at Stoke on Trent 6th Form College. It felt like 80+ people had turned out from 4pm to 8pm on what was a normal evening. They turned out to help each other and to learn ideas and tips. The atmosphere was stunning and everyone picked up tips, ideas and answers to questions.

I run a business, and we are active members of the local branch of the Federation of Small Businesses. I’ve recently joined the committee. When we were organising events at our last meeting I suggested that the experience, expertise and approach of our members lent itself to a ‘Teachmeet’ approach. Bless ‘em – they were up for it!

So – on Wednesday we had a go. Smaller audience than Stoke (15 people) and less presenters (3). The approach went down very well, and I feel that ‘mighty oaks from little acorns’ may indeed grow. A stunning result was that we had a visitor from the other side of Birmingham – for a meeting in Lutterworth.

This raises the questions – what else can business borrow from schools and what can schools borrow from business?